Harvard creates brain-to-brain interface, allows humans to control other animals with thoughts alone

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Researchers at Harvard University have created the first noninvasive brain-to-brain interface (BBI) between a human… and a rat. Simply by thinking the appropriate thought, the BBI allows the human to control the rat’s tail. This is one of the most important steps towards BBIs that allow for telepathic links between two or more humans — which is a good thing in the case of friends and family, but terrifying if you stop to think about the nefarious possibilities of a fascist dictatorship with mind control tech.

In recent years there have been huge advances in the field of brain-computer interfaces, where your thoughts are detected and “understood” by a sensor attached to a computer, but relatively little work has been done in the opposite direction (computer-brain interfaces). This is because it’s one thing for a computer to work out what a human is thinking (by asking or observing their actions), but another thing entirely to inject new thoughts into a human brain. To put it bluntly, we have almost no idea of how thoughts are encoded by neurons in the brain. For now, the best we can do is create a computer-brain interface that stimulates a region of the brain that’s known to create a certain reaction — such as the specific part of the motor cortex that’s in charge of your fingers. We don’t have the power to move your fingers in a specific way — that would require knowing the brain’s encoding scheme — but we can make them jerk around.

Which brings us neatly onto Harvard’s human-mouse brain-to-brain interface. The human wears a run-of-the-mill EEG-based BCI, while the mouse is equipped with a focused ultrasound (FUS) computer-brain interface (CBI). FUS is a relatively new technology that allows the researchers to excite a very specific region of neurons in the rat’s brain using an ultrasound signal. The main advantage of FUS is that, unlike most brain-stimulation techniques, such as DBS, it isn’t invasive. For now it looks like the FUS equipment is fairly bulky, but future versions might be small enough for use in everyday human CBIs. (See: Real-life Avatar: The first mind-controlled robot surrogate.)

With the EEG equipped, the BCI detects whenever the human looks at a specific pattern on a computer screen. The BCI then fires off a command to rat’s CBI, which causes ultrasound to be beamed into the region of the rat’s motor cortex that deals with tail movement. As you can see in the video above, this causes the rat’s tail to move. The researchers report that the human BCI has an accuracy of 94%, and that it generally takes around 1.5 seconds for the entire process — from the human deciding to look at the screen, through to the movement of the rat’s tail. In theory, the human could trigger a rodent tail-wag by simply thinking about it, rather than having to look at a specific pattern — but presumably, for the sake of this experiment, the researchers wanted to focus on the FUS CBI, rather than the BCI.

Moving forward, the researchers now need to work on the transmitting of more complex ideas, such as hunger or sexual arousal, from human to rat. At some point, they’ll also have to put the FUS CBI on a human, to see if thoughts can be transferred in the opposite direction. Finally, we’ll need to combine an EEG and FUS into a single unit, to allow for bidirectional sharing of thoughts and ideas. Human-to-human telepathy is the most obvious use, but what if the same bidirectional technology also allows us to really communicate with animals, such as dogs? There would be huge ethical concerns, of course, especially if a dictatorial tyrant uses the tech to control our thoughts — but the same can be said of almost every futuristic, transhumanist technology.

Awaken my child and embrace the glory that is your birthright. Know that I am the Overmind, the eternal will of the Swarm, and that you have been created to serve me!

ZX_Maniac_86

I’ll be honest it’s a truly scary notion because you know the next tests will soon be human brain-brain interfaces… Scientists have truly eliminated ethics and gone from a “Should we do this” to a “Can we do this” mentality. It’s scary for the next generations and maybe even current ones to think about. Just remember, anything in science that can be utilized for righteousness can also be used for evil. Keep that in mind…

Swedishiron

Remotely control a Porn Star – you know its coming.

joemckie

“You know it’s coming”

Oh you!

swattz101

I expect to see it the other way. Build it into video with impulses to stimulate your senses without you having to do anything. Be it porn, horror movie or games.

Techutante

I can’t recall which book predicted consciousness streaming, but would seem to be what would happen. 1 famous rich/pretty person goes out partying and does drugs, has sex, etc, and a million people go along for the ride.

Simon

Neuromancer is one of the first to describe something like that, so it probably was the first to predict that.

Techutante

Yeah, I’m fairly sure we could hand that to Gibson. He did predict nearly everything it seems. Distopian future with cool gadgets, coming to a life near you! Might have been Neal Stephenson too. I read a lot, and remember only snatches.

liveinthislife

another one is technogenesis..

Techutante

That’s about the same plot as two dozen anime/manga from the 90s. Nothing really innovative or predictive, technology wise. Lots of technobabble and made-up uses for otherwise currently obsolete technology. Skynet, woooo scary. I do wonder if we will ever use crystals as a storage media though. (The idea for that goes back to the 50-70s at least, in sci-fi.) A short reading list: Keith Laumer, Asimov, Roger Zelazny, Fritz Lieber, Larry Niven. (Far from all of them, just cherry picking some of my favorite authors who touched on the subject.) Neuromancer came out in 1984, pre-dating all of the technology that technogenesis is babbling about, that’s why Gibson is generally considered the patron saint of cyber-tech.

Chuck Thom

A Brave New World?

Techutante

Surely a classic, and predictive. Not very specific in the technologies individually, but very graphic as to the overall uses they can be negatively put toward. See: NSA.

TurboKitty

All I want to know is … how big is that rat in the picture … =/

freeagent37

Lol

Peter Percidvales Whisperwind

Yeah! I scrolled down to see if anyone had noticed how big it looked. That is like pig! Wow.

joelochi

Why cant we use the ultrasound to stimulate the pleasure centers of the brain? A consumer product like that would a huge amount of profit to the distributor.

Sean

The company would have too much liability when the people using those devices continued to press the “pleasure” button until they died from dehydration.

Read “Terminal Man” by Michael Crichton, it deals with this issue. Chilling stuff.

siliconsleep

A PKD world awaits us all….Do androids dream of electric…impulses?

Varuka Salt

It will exist. If a company doesn’t make it, hackers will take the existing hardware and code the software to make it do what they want. Look what is happening to the Chromecast, just days after it became available.

Nik

Has anyone seen the size of that MFing rat??

Guest

It’s not to scale.

Swedishiron

are you sure :)

Jerry Erickson

I’m up for not having this funded/continued in any way, shape, or form. Science is evolving much faster than our ethics.

pnoozi

Even after reading this article, how much can you really say you know about this? Enough to completely dismiss it?

Brooklynish

It’s basically completely wrong. So yes, it should be completely dismissed.

Jamie MacDonald

Hardly. Being able to share knowledge wirelessly could be life saving. Imagine a team of surgeons linking minds, thinking as one as they operate on a patient. Or a team of astronauts piloting a complex, futuristic craft into the cosmos. The coordination benefits alone would be excellent.

Brooklynish

How is it right to build technology that could strip agency away from literally billions of animals, human or otherwise, so that some vague and unnecessary benefits might marginally make certain tasks easier in the future? We should all know how this would be used in regard to other animals — cruelly, wrongly, basically indiscriminately — with vague sentiments like these being used as ‘justification.’ We can’t just ignore all the negative potential of a development and focus solely on some far out sci-fi wet-dream.

Jamie MacDonald

You strap a flint knife to a stick and someone could misuse it for evil. The idea is to make sure that it can also be used for good. Technology doesn’t stop, won’t stop. If someone drops the test tube due to morals, another hundred companies and countries will pick up where they left off. Science, unlike Religion, doesn’t closet off areas of knowledge that aren’t pretty.

Brooklynish

Well, you could label anything inevitable and use that unsupported claim as self-evident justification. “Oh, it’s inevitable that humans will ruin their environment. So might as well get on with it!” We should be learning greater responsibility, not less, and understand our weaknesses — a fondness for jumping off technological cliffs without really considering/understanding the consequences is one of them — so that we can avoid the usual pitfalls.

Jamie MacDonald

We build a better world through technology. Name one tech cliff we’ve jumped off so far, you can say how this can only be used for evil, but all that shows is your short-sighted pessimism clouds your judgement.

One good example. Treating PTSD. There, we can create delicate, accurate therapy to help people overcome their traumatising memories. People who find it near-impossible to live with that can be treated better than they are now.

The thing with tech is that sometimes it has a use after it’s discovered. Noone ever thought sand would play Crysis, or that quartz could tell the time. We discover everything, and then we find purpose for it. Sometimes it gets put onto the tip of a bullet, and a lot of the time it makes things a little better. I’m not saying we’ll walk off a cliff, because I hate to break it to you, but scientists are smarter than you. They plan the experiments for months, years. They delicately assess all facts and data, and move towards the final product slowly and steadily.

This site is proof, how many tech miracles get announced here that are years or decades away?

Name a technology we’d be better off without. Not replacing it, just having it gone completely.

Brooklynish

Are you kidding me? You think “the world” is really better off for every human invention, however meaningless yet destructive?

Have you any environmental/ecological awareness? Is it worth inventing plastics if they ultimately help kill the oceans? Have you heard of global warming? Is the internal combustion engine worth inventing, if it leads us down a path of destruction?

Are you aware that the world includes more than just you and yours? Do you think tens of billions of chickens are better off for the invention of battery cages? (Just one example — we could literally go on and on in this vein.) Or, since maybe you don’t want to consider the legitimate interests of non-humans, how about torture devices designed for humans? Humans have been and still are a plague on the other inhabitants of this world.

Christ man. You sound like a cultural automaton, following the widespread gospel of “Consume Without Regard — Live in Your Comfortable Bubble. Ignore Both the Consequences and the Powerless.” Most humans have a stake in that selfish game, defining their identities/beliefs around narrow self-serving goals. Most people on this thread have apparently never actually looked outside it. You can either confine yourself to that comfortable worldview or become something better.

Technology is always a trade off. It inherently involves taking resources from some so that others may do something new. In the vast majority of cases, that “something new” is incredibly worthless, while what’s taken away from others could often rightly be called vital.

Jamie MacDonald

I work for an environmental company, specifically cetacean conservation, so I daresay I have some notion.

Again, you are ignoring the crux of my comments. You’re twisting them to your own view. My point isn’t that technology now is perfect at all, but that technology progressively improves to a better world.

I mean, do you honestly thinking your pissing at every little thing makes you unique? There are a hundred million whiney little kids like you who feel they know far more than they actually do.

ssunray

PTSD: I’ve had a minor version of it after a mentally/emotionally abusive relationshit (no typo). The problem wasn’t the PTSD, but the traumatizing events that I had locked away and ignored for two years. The PTSD was the actual healing process for me through reliving those moments in dreams or through triggered behaviour by someone else. The triggers are helpful to make you face the emotions of that past event, and the triggers come in the succession that the person is most prepared for. Once you face the emotion of the past trauma, basically the trauma is dealt with enough not to cause a trigger anymore. Sure it’s disruptive from normal, everyday events… But the real issue is the past trauma, and PTSD is the mind’s own solution to heal that past trauma.

I don’t see how ‘controlling’ another person’s brain might help with that. Only the brain of the person actually having PTSD knows which memories and accompanying emotions need to be dealt with first. If somebody else would steer that process, it’s just gonna make things worse imo.

And having been involved with a controlling, manipulative person, I guess I don’t see much positive in a technology that promotes control over another one’s brain (be it animal or human)

Frank Posadas

the perfect paradisical and technologically omnipotent society awaits us, YES we need to be ethically responsible, but denying ourselves such an enticing and healthy future is in itself unethical

Brooklynish

I don’t think you know the meaning of the word ‘ethical.’ You’re just a kid in a candy store, ignoring the suffering of billions. Time to grow up.

Josh Bushell

You don’t seem to play for team people, you play for team world. Team world envisions a world without people. The game is to continue humanity. That’s it…

Josh Bushell

You don’t seem to play for team people, you play for team world. Team world envisions a world without people. The game is to continue humanity. That’s it…

Guiltyspark

This technology will allow us to have perfect empathy with everyone that’s connected to it. For example if a homophobic persons brain was connected to a gay person mind. They would instantly stop being homophobic.

Brooklynish

If this comes about at some point in the distant future, then increased empathy could be a positive effect. But there are a lot of potential negatives (and actual negatives, such as the testing that’s going on now)…

Frank Posadas

well we might as well not make lace lingerie, cuz some bozo is going to choke on it during some trip. we are in large part an empathetic civilization, and we can be much more if we push ourselves in these advancing technologies. we can sort out ethics as they come.

Frank Posadas

we should stop making anvils too… i mean have you SEEN looney toons?

Jerry Erickson

You’re awfully negative, spiteful of someone simply because that person is simply asking a question that hasn’t really been addressed about this technology and the possible advancement of it.

Brooklynish

“We can be much more”? What the hell does that even mean? In broad terms, would it matter how far civilization “advances” if it means the destruction of the planet? No. It’s a stupid narrative you and everyone in our culture has been sold. Some people sell it because it lets them essentially do whatever the hell they feel like without regard to many others; others buy it for exactly the same reason. This is just intellectual laziness and selfishness. Let’s call a spade a spade and examine our own delusions.

andyrwebman

Thing is, banning it will not stop it happening, it will just mean that the ones who get it are the most secretive tyes of all who do illegal research.

At least if you develop it with some ethical oversight you have a better chance of countering the abd effect.s

James Martindale

I have a good book for you. It’s called BZRK, written by Michael Grant.

Jerry Erickson

That’s the my case nor even close to being on point. My only concern is that we have not examined in-depth about the emergence of such technology. It seems as if the science is developing at a faster rate that we can determine is ethical application. Is controlling the mind of another being excusable? What about human beings? Where is the line? Do you think someone would cross that line or trust people implicitly?

I’m not dismissing it, I’m simply stating that if ethics aren’t discussed in length, I won’t support it.

ckhcorp

Should have said that before the development of the nuclear bomb.
this is really nothing.

freeagent37

Lol, I have to laugh at the last sentence in the first paragraph of this article which states:

This is one of the most important steps towards BBIs
(Brain-to-Brain-Interface) that allow for telepathic links between two
or more humans — which is a good thing
in the case of friends and family, but terrifying if you stop to think
about the nefarious possibilities of a fascist dictatorship with mind
control tech.

As if the Insane Criminals of the USA are not a
nefarious fascist dictatorship…as if we trust and think we are safe
with these madmen in control and oh how good it is to have this type of
reckless technology at all. We know what these kings and priests are
truly shooting for.

Robert Sage

This is why we can’t have nice things, people like you jumping to conclusions.

Jerry Erickson

I didn’t jump to any conclusions. Read my posts; that’s far from accurate.

swattz101

That flashing computer screen gave me a headache, but otherwise cool tech!

HolyChrist

Humans are biological machines. Nothing more.

Varuka Salt

I don’t know why people are down voting you. None of them has any shred of evidence for anything other than what you have stated.

HolyChrist

Every bit of evidence proves exactly what I said. Including this article!

Varuka Salt

Correct. I’m not arguing with you. I agree with you. Seems others don’t. Can’t understand why as they have no facts on their side.

HolyChrist

I was agreeing with you agreeing with me. ;] Sorry, I should’ve started my last comment with “I know!” :]

Frank Posadas

humans poo green sometimes… BAM fact.. crown me

convolution

World’s first Human-Rat Neural Handshake #PacificRim

Jamie MacDonald

Holy crap rat Jaegers please.

Brooklynish

This is a terrible development that goes against every principle of freedom. (And that produces no significant discernible benefits, just one factor in determining whether this would be ethical). I don’t care if you’re a human or a rat — no creature should be able to wag another’s appendages around at will, without consent. We take far too from other animals as is, all without their interests in mind.

I’m sure there will be many enthralled by the sci-fi/tech narratives of so-called ‘progress,’ or perhaps just the power (only for a few, I would add) this would seem to harbor, but ultimately it’s just completely selfish for humans to do this.

Erica Haapakowski

This guy. I would bang.

Brooklynish

I’m right here :)

(you know, in Brooklyn)

HatingOnHarvardRightAboutNow

Eh. At best you’re just freaking out. It’s inevitable. This was what I was planning to do for a graduate project. Harvard beat me to the punch, go figure. You may be blinding yourself with fear. It is progressive as it can bring a new age of immortality that no one has ever imagined. Although I still think it would take 40 years at best to perfect the framework. Imagine, carbon copies of your cells when you were at your peak, and restoring those copies for later programming.

You’d live until you chose to die.

Brooklynish

Yeah… Going to be a little blunt with you, and hopefully it’s not taken as a polemic.

This just seems like a silly sci-fi fantasy, apart from whether or not it’s actually feasible. In what world does it make any sense for humans to live forever? Just because it sounds cool on the surface? Sounding cool is a pretty worthless attribute when considering the most basic interests of all involved… Simply put, it’d be ‘progress’ only for some, at the extreme expense of all other animals (and many, many human animals, no doubt). It’s not a path we should walk down, even if possible. 100% unjustified to be pursuing that future.

Also, saying, ‘Eh, I don’t know if I care about that’ isn’t a real argument against what I wrote, and makes me question whether you’ve yet developed a justifiable framework for assessing ethical issues in general. No problem if you haven’t — there’s always time.

Lastly, calling my comments ‘freaking out’ is a bit unjustified, no? I’m responding with facts/reason to what’s happening right now in a lab at Harvard, which has potential to happen in many more places if such technology/practices are refined further.

My friend, make precision, facts, and reason your friends. :)

ckhcorp

Lets look at the grand scheme of things, when we discover new things, we don’t know 100% what it will be used for,
but controlling something with your brain, is a good tool
for instance paralysed people can control “wheelchair”
or whatever they want with their brain, I am sure they will appreciate it.

to address your justified concern with any discovery what you realise is that it can be used for something good, and something bad, but is up to us to hold those who are funding it accountable, and is going terrible right now, the American people are too lazy to care about it, their politicians.

Brooklynish

Seems like you’re putting the cart way in front of the horse, so to speak… And not actually looking at the grand scheme of things. For one, you seem not to be considering non-human animals, which is a major factor here.

Being able to control a wheelchair with one’s brain — which, by the way, is not what these researchers are trying to do, and could be figured out without this kind of experimentation — would be fine, but it doesn’t really matter in the grand scheme of things. Humans being able to control the behaviors of others, however, is potentially a massive disaster for individuals and us all. We have a terrible history of extreme mistreatment of others conveniently deemed to be outside the power structure or marginalized within it, just because we can. And yes, it is ongoing. 10 billion animals a year are tortured and terminated on factory farms each year so humans can have an unnecessary protein source.

Look at what this might be used for and ask yourself: what do you think we’ll actually do with this? This type of technology will absolutely be used unethically — in fact, it already is being used unethically in this Harvard lab.

Gryphen

Do you think you can stop the progress on this CBI tech? The question at hand is when it *does* happen, do we want it to be like internet explorer, or firefox? Would you trust it if the US government was the only entity capable of using it?

Take two very imprecise means of sensing and controlling brain activity and string them together. That’s all this is. Improving the ability to locally stimulate and locally sense brain activity is where the real science could be done … and that is a very very very difficult problem.

So this work amounts to little more than a cheap parlour trick.

Luis X

That last bit is what Junius Spencer Morgan (J.P. Morgan’s father) said about domestic electricity, almost verbatim.

This method of using FUS to stimulate specific structures in the
brain is very impressive. I would be curious to see if it is capable of
reaching and stimulating ganglion or specific nuclei in the spine. Might
be a great non-invasive technique for by-passing a damaged region of
the spinal cord in some paralysis patients to allow the individual to
regain motor function. Very cool.

Varuka Salt

Damn that’s brilliant. One more reason I’m so pissed off at all the self assured troglodytes talking out their ass here about “facts and reason being your friend” when they are presenting arguments of pure emotion.

Brooklynish

Varuka, un-self-aware people make for the most boring and repetitive conversationalists. What’s more, they’re often unjustifiably arrogant, making them even harder to stand.

My arguments haven’t had an ounce of unjustified emotion. You haven’t actually made any arguments yet… Are you afraid of doing the hard thinking? Afraid of considering all sides of an issue, not just the ones you’ve been told are important by your culture? Of considering the consequences and perspectives that might prohibit you from simply doing whatever you like?

Look, knowing the word ‘troglodyte’ (if not how to use it properly) doesn’t exempt you from the moniker. So far all you’ve done is demonstrate intellectual laziness, if not outright inferiority. Smart people don’t tend argue for unequal rights and/or consideration based solely on intellectual inferiority. It’s only might-makes-right troglodytes (like you?) who would seriously suggest it’s ok to take vital interests away from others to satisfy the mere curiosities of some.

jytdog

That is some of the worst science writing I have ever read. Really, dramatically unhelpful with respect to helping the public understand what was actually achieved and the huge challenges that remain. A terrible disservice to the achievement, the future investment needed to make this into actual technology, and to the public.

jytdog

this is eating at me… all the talk in this article about “thoughts” being transferred and ‘telepathy’ are wholly inaccurate and irresponsible. Stimulating a region of a rat brain that causes uncontrolled tail twitching is a zillion miles removed from anything like a “thought”

thetaldich

Awesome, we cured cancer. At least I’m assuming we did since we’re doing experiments like this.

Nathan Barrett

Cool. Let’s put improving energy storage technologies on hold, too. Because, you know, the scientists and engineers that work on that are educated in the same medical sciences looking at cancer cures and we need their help!

Anthony

Your an idiot.

Travis Keller

you’re*, Mr. President.

James Tolson

how’s the cure for cancer coming?

James Kelley

By the time this becomes really 100% functional, I will happily, ecstatically be in my grave.
Don’t want to live in a world like that.
She said, Your Honor, he was thinking sexual thoughts of me and I was deeply offended. I was mentally raped.

Peter

I already control my dog, Bodhi with my thoughts. By simply putting words to them.

I also already control porn stars … with my wallet.

Outcom_5

This whole mind control shit or anything derived, or that looks remotely like it, anything related to it n o matter how small HAS TO BE BANNED and made A CRIME. All “scientists” doing this inhuman “research” should be shot by an execution squad. Maybe it will happen one day!.

Lynne In Utah

New twist – but old news. Temple Grandin, autistic doctor of animal science and professor at Colorado State University did some foundational work on “seeing what an animal sees” decades ago, which produced some patents for innovations such as new cattle loading chutes (the cows were afraid of the shadows produced in standard chutes up to then). Even back in 2003, professional animal trainers I worked with were already using visualization commands instead of verbal or visual ques, such as sending a picture in your mind of your dog jumping over a fence instead of telling him to do it. The key then, and probably now, was that it worked with trust, established between the two parties, and love. (Did not need EEGs or technical equipment). But It doesn’t take much imagination to see where all this is all going – implanted nano device which is a transmitter/receiver conduit for the human-human or human-animal interface: monitors emotions, physical state, sees what you’re seeing, hears what you’re hearing, knows what you’re thinking. I went to the library to check out the books 1984 and Brave New World (which nailed this stuff a LONG time ago), and the books are wait listed for months ahead.

Must authors always slip in a luddite gasp of paranoia — the cliché “but what if the machines become aware and attack us” copy-paste knee-jerk reaction — when talking about cool research?

“…which is a good thing in the case of friends and family, but terrifying if you stop to think about the nefarious possibilities of a fascist dictatorship with mind control tech”

And what if this tech allows us to reach a nirvana of inter-personal empathy, that lack of which has been holding humans back in a dark age of mutual mistrust? Speculation, speculation, speculation. We don’t need the paranoia, please.

pbird

a nirvana of inter-personal empathy…….
talk about knee jerk..

Dantes

We already have fascists controlling low information voters with lies and mass media. Who needs another machine?

freeagent37

Thats right

Moth Man

If we had “fascism” we wouldn’t have to tolerate millions of subhuman animals in our cities, or Hebrews in the media supporting them.

FFlintstone

The next step is to control the brains of the Benghazi survivors and get then to back Obama’s lies.

Mandy Heath

OMG why is everything political. seriously.

freeagent37

Because its effecting everything we do, we have to get evolved, do you have any idea whats happening in America? Just look at the snowden, manning, assange, wake up!

freeagent37

True that

freeagent37

Lol, I have to laugh at the last sentence in the first paragraph of this article which states:

This is one of the most important steps towards BBIs
(Brain-to-Brain-Interface) that allow for telepathic links between two
or more humans — which is a good thing
in the case of friends and family, but terrifying if you stop to think
about the nefarious possibilities of a fascist dictatorship with mind
control tech.

As if the Insane Criminals of the USA are not a
nefarious fascist dictatorship…as if we trust and think we are safe
with these madmen in control and oh how good it is to have this type of
reckless technology at all. We know what these kings and priests are
truly shooting for.

freeagent37

Lol, I have to laugh at the last sentence in the first paragraph of this article which states:

This is one of the most important steps towards BBIs
(Brain-to-Brain-Interface) that allow for telepathic links between two
or more humans — which is a good thing
in the case of friends and family, but terrifying if you stop to think
about the nefarious possibilities of a fascist dictatorship with mind
control tech.

As if the Insane Criminals of the USA are not a
nefarious fascist dictatorship…as if we trust and think we are safe
with these madmen in control and oh how good it is to have this type of
reckless technology at all. We know what these kings and priests are
truly shooting for. As if we are not aware of Wikileaks, Manning, Snowden..and the criminals who are trying to flex on having a conscious.

Is this really science? I mean, it’s totally obvious that this can be done. I don’t see a need to strap a rat to a table and fuck with it, to prove the point. I feel like this is just a vanity exercise to gather some media points. And this kind of thing should be done with willing human subjects, not with animals. Not ethical

SpiritualAwakening

Would you believe it was real if it was a human to human demo? ;)

Ariel

go on make everyone and everything a zombie :,) how fucking cute

Sam Wagner

Maybe its me but this seems vastly different than telepathy or communicating thoughts. Its two separate system. The first part involves a human who looks at something which triggers brain activity. The thing is the brain activity is just a way to trigger the mouse, its the same as pushing a button. It is nothing more than a story about controlling a mouses tail using a ultrasound in the motor cortex.

Orlando Lopez

The picture up top makes it look like a massive rat hahaha

Raziel1313

I like the fact that this isn’t invasive for the animal. That the device can be taken off and it can go about a normal life.

As for the future use, there are a few very large possibilities. People donate organs all the time, what about whole bodies? if someone was to become brain dead, meaning that the conscious part of themselves was no longer able to function, but the rest of their brain was intact could they not be used as a surrogate? Rather than letting them waste away what if someone like Steven Hawking, or my father-in-law, that have perfectly able minds, but have suffered either a disease or injury that has left them unable to move, could tap into that body and have experiences outside of where they are now. People that may have profound contributions to the world but are otherwise unable to move could be living a life through someone that is no longer able to use their mind. Some people would be willing to donate themselves to do this.

With this being “sci-fi” and therefore what could it possibly do for us, have you gone back and watched a Star Trek from the 70’s, or even the late 80’s for that matter? Devices that can connect people on opposite sides of the planet with the touch of a button that is sci-fi….what we have cell phones. Pads that can download text for reading from a central computer without the need for wires and giving the user mobility, yeah right, that is sci-fi nonsense only shown in TNG when Picard is reading a report…..wait iPads and Kindles. So what you think is just science fiction now, with refinement, will have uses in the future. In fact many breakthroughs are the discarded thoughts from other scientific fields. It could be that as a mind-to-mind technology this won’t pan out but through its development someone else can see the possibility for hooking up a mind to robotics where the electrical connections are more certain.

Science is ever changing and will build on not only the success of things, but the failures as well. This looks like ground breaking work and it will be interesting to see what will become of it.

Willis Harvey

This could have ridiculous implications on the evolution of motor functions throughout different species. I mean we can tell from the neurological structure the size and such of different cortexes in the brain, but now we can actually see how the neuron patterns correlate between species (ie. how close to walking with hind legs for a dog is to walking with human legs). This should lead to some interesting developments…

Jacob Kowalski

THIS IS CRUEL TO THE RAT

SAVE THE RATS

Collomps

May be used to control a electronic stimulator to control the legs on a splnal wounded person, allowing to walk again.

Lee Grandmaison

That wouldn’t work. The connection between the brain and the legs is already severed, hence why they don’t have control of their legs in the first place.

A robotic exo-skeleton is a far more feasable option, at least until we can figure out how to repair the nerve damage itself.

Collomps

I mean, if they are able to pick signals from the brain, they might be used to (via bluetooth or another remote signal) send orders to one or more electric muscular stimulators to move the leg muscles directly, bypassing the spinal nerves, since the muscles themselves are in good shape and able to move if they receive the right electric signal, feeded directly. A robotic exoskeleton would work in the very same way but would be far more bulky (but spectacular of course) and complex.

Lee Grandmaison

Ah… I misunderstood then. My apologies.

Carry on. :-)

towyomama

Interesting how Pacific Rim has the brain drifting, and this is announced. Actually though in all honesty, I plan to go back to school soon to hopefully work on stuff like this

There is not one creation of any kind that would be bad, if it were not for the truth of the reality facing America today. The insane criminal cartel that has already taken over america. Look deeply my friends, please. madmen walking dressed as Americans in the whitehouse, you dont think they for onr minute its going where all technology is going, to control the whole world including all of us, WAKE UP!!!!!!!!!

coffeekvlt

I didn’t bother reading any of the comments, hence my sincere apologies to those who already asked that question:
At what point in the experiment do thoughts (as suggested by the headline) get introduced? That is, since when does being-visually-irritated-by-a-particular-stimulus count as having-thought(s)? It eludes me…

Ann O’riley

I feel its way past that point.. I would say we are our own broadcasting Station just need extra sensitive aerial and unique T.V set and our eyes are cameras ..So dont worry with Manning or Snowdon America.. CAUSE your eyes are cameras and as long as you have done nothing wrong .. A bull shit WAR just killing each other .. THERE IS NO PRIVACY AMERICA SHUT YOUR EYES AND PROTECT YOUR BRAIN WAVES .. LOOKS LIKE THERE IS NO MORE SECRETS .. WELL MY EXCUSE IS I WANT TO SEE WHAT THE INTELLIGENT LIFE LOOKS LIKE IN THE BILLIONS OF SOLAR SYSTEMS .. I WOULD WANT TO NO IF THEY WATCHING OUR T.V

Jono

“the nefarious possibilities of a fascist dictatorship with mind control tech”

So a socialist dictatorship with mind control tech would be OK by you?

Venkataramanan Thiru

good article

Dmd Daglow

controlling others is nefarious indeed. However, what if there was an interface that recorded all of your experiences since birth attached to you, and at any given time you can give access to certain parts of those experiences upon command and still keep things private like you atm number, websites you’ve visited etc..So if we are having a conversation while interfaced I mention casioblue and you see a boat trip in Hawaii? Or Rodney King and you see police beating up a man or Ground Hog Day and you see the movie “Ground Hog Day” Better yet your interface interprets all of those things with experiences you have had. Casioblue would be a movie about a boat trip in Hawaii and Rodney King would be about the time you fell out of a tree and experienced pain and Ground Hog Day you would experience the computer program Artiris.(the program removes everything from the previous day except the data)

Imagine one person making a speech and everyone on the planet understands exactly what that person means.

Lesley

Tin-foil-hat time.

Lucius

This idea of Human-controlling… I have a bad feeling about it.

Ronnie Nolan Raharjo

With the possibility of brain hacking, comes the market for brain anti-virus and firewalls. The way I see it, there is as much to fear from this technology as there is from every technology that has ever been invented and will ever be invented, that is to say, nothing. There is very few, if any, technologies and inventions that have never been used for evil (and good). This will be like every other invention, some people will use it for good, some for evil and someone, somewhere will come up with countermeasures to those.

Harry Renson 1 gerswin courtmk

alright lads, having a mental time are we?

jossie

Invest in my idea: mind reader frames- able to change music station with a thought

Josh Tolley

When can we use it to get sexy women to want sex?
Call me then.

J Peterman

Interesting that this technology was studied at Harvard; the same institution alien abduction researcher John Mack studied “ufo experiencers”. It makes me wonder if a wireless version of this technology has been experimented on random citizens to make them believe they’ve been abducted by aliens. Subjects then report the “experience” to “researchers” who collect the data. The stories are so unbelievable and crazy that they effectively get away with experimenting on people and maintain an illegal, covert activity.

J Peterman

Interesting that this technology was studied at Harvard; the same institution alien abduction researcher John Mack studied “ufo experiencers”. It makes me wonder if a wireless version of this technology has been experimented on random citizens to make them believe they’ve been abducted by aliens. Subjects then report the “experience” to “researchers” who collect the data. The stories are so unbelievable and crazy that they effectively get away with experimenting on people and maintain an illegal, covert activity.

idontknow

The DHS has *already* supplied police departments all across the country with the Raytheon Silent Guardian ADS, a microwave weapon that was deployed to Afghanistan in 2010, that is capable of voice to skull transmission. Although commanders on the ground in Afghanistan requested to use the Silent Guardian a number of times, they were refused out of fear that they would be accused (and guilty) of torture. Law enforcement has no such compunctions, and even the LA County Jail regularly uses microwaves to break up fights and administer “discipline”.

So now I am suppose to trust some traitorous DHS agent or unconstitutional cop with true mind control technology? Gee, what could possibly go wrong?

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